Migration summit: live

EU leaders are meeting Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Brussels to try and stem the flow of migrants heading to Europe.

Turkey has proposed a plan, under which it would take back all irregular migrants, including Syrians, crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands. In exchange the EU would give an extra €3 billion in aid, help establishing safe zones in Syria, and offer progress on visa liberalisation and Turkey’s EU membership aspirations. EU leaders are studying the proposal, but there are a number of reservations and a deal tonight looks in doubt.

Statement of the EU Heads of State or Government following the meeting with Turkey

“The Heads of State or Government agreed that bold moves were needed to close down people smuggling routes, to break the business model of the smugglers, to protect our external borders and to end the migration crisis in Europe. We need to break the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe.”

“One point is to look with Cyprus where new opening of chapters is possible. There is a lot of work ahead, because Cyprus sees this in relation to its [own] negotiations with Turkey. There we will have a lot of work in the coming days.”

“All of us are aware that we have a breakthrough now. This is a chance to have real progress in all aspects of our joint action plan. We have to be cautious in some details. But when it comes to substance, all of us are aware that this is the most promising moment in this process.”

“We have implemented all the decisions we made and we made a great effort in order to prevent refugee flow and human smuggling. But there was a need of a bold decision. Yesterday, before coming here, we studied he case in a careful manner and we brought some careful proposals.”

“Our main objective is the humanitarian objective.” “Turkey is not demanding any money from anyone.” Turkey is not responsible for this humanitarian tragedy.”

“Despite the good implementation of the joint action plan on migration, the flow of migrants from Turkey to Greece remains too high. I am happy that we have a common understanding with Prime Minister Davutoglu on cooperation as to achieving progress in the coming days” “We are sending a very clear message that the days of irregular migration to Europe are over”

Days of irregular migration to Europe are over. Turkish PM confirmed Turkey takes back irregular migrants apprehended on Turkish waters.

“If security at borders is guaranteed, if Turkey respect its duty in terms of readmission — it is a complete system which will allow us to come back to schengen. We finally have a coherent and finally a European action based on objectives and instruments that can be useful.”

Cyprus’ opposition to Turkey using these negotiations to advance its cause of joining the EU is unchanged, government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides said this evening.

He was referring to Ankara’s demands towards the EU to open five chapters, which Cyprus had frozen due to Turkey’s non-compliance with its EU obligations.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades met tonight with the president of the European Council, the prime minister of EU Presidency country, Holland, the German chancellor and the Greek prime minister, among others. During those meetings, Anastasiades clarified Cyprus’ position on the issue, Christodoulides said. That is: Those chapters have been frozen for specific reasons and can only be opened if Turkey fulfils its obligations.

Christodoulides expressed satisfaction with the fact that Cyprus’ position is backed by its EU partners, who as he pointed out, understand that Turkey cannot use its role in the refugee crisis, which is a humanitarian crisis, to ask for exchanges as regards its EU accession course.

Any deal on migration that the EU strikes with Turkey would be almost impossible to implement, according to an internal report prepared for Eurojust, the EU’s judicial cooperation agency.

As POLITICO’s Giulia Paravicini explains here, the report, which was prepared last month and provided to POLITICO, suggests Turkey lacks the political will and the infrastructure to help stem flow of migrants into Europe.

“Contrary to EU opinion, migrants leaving Turkey is a dominant idea favored by the Turkish government and people — i.e., they support smugglers getting immigrants leaving Turkey,” the Eurojust report states.

HERE’S TURKEY’s PROPOSAL, first leaked to Reuters earlier today and currently being considered by EU leaders and Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoğlu.

It involves:

— Turkey taking back (“expeditiously” but “temporarily” and from a date to be determined) all irregular migrants, including Syrians, crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands
— Before that, the EU to “evacuate completely refugees from the Greek islands”
— The EU admitting one Syrian refugee for every Syrian taken back by Turkey from the Greek islands
— Turkey receiving an extra €3 billion in aid from the EU for refugees between now and 2018
— Progress made on Turkey’s aspirations to join the EU
— Easier access to Schengen visas for Turkish citizens from June 2016
— Turkey and EU states cooperating “in any joint endeavour to establish humanitarian safe ares inside Syria”

EU leaders are weighing it, but there are reservations (particularly from Cyprus) about Turkey’s EU membership aspirations, how the “evacuation” plan would work, and whether Turkey will make some commitment to improve press freedom. A deal tonight looks unlikely at this stage, according to POLITICO’s @jacopobarigazzi.

Meanwhile, diplomats have been studying the Turkish plan. And word is they are struggling.

Diplomats in the room are reading the Turkish proposal very carefully because it’s written in a language they often don’t understand, POLITICO’s Jacopo Barigazzi explains.

“A diplomatic source told me his colleagues are there trying to make sense of expressions such as ‘evacuate’ which they would never use, and for which the meaning is very unclear. Another good reason to doubt we will have a deal tonight.”

One sticking point on the table tonight is an offer from Ankara to take back all migrants coming from Turkey into the EU — from economic migrants to those refugees fleeing war zones like Syria — starting from a certain date on.

However, before this date can be reached, Turkey wants the EU to “evacuate completely refugees from the Greek islands,” in order to avoid that also those many thousands of refugees who have already reached the Greek islands could be returned under the new agreement.

“It’s about creating a point zero, from where on we can start the returning process,” a European diplomat told POLITICO.

However, there remain many open questions: How to completely evacuate thousands of refugees from the Greek islands in a short time, with hundreds of new arrivals every day? And are the existing returning agreements with Turkey sufficient to send back those Syrians who are most likely normally entitled to claim asylum in the EU?

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has just met NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg before returning to the EU summit where leaders are discussing Turkey’s proposals on how to handle the migration crisis.

Davutoğlu said the wave of refugees to Turkey increased dramatically because of airstrikes by Russia and the Syrian regime in the lead up to the recent ceasefire. Turkey has 2.7 million refugees he said, and hundreds of thousands waiting on the other side of the border.

“They are in a very desperate situation and we are very worried whether there could be new waves of refugees.”

Russia’s intervention in Syria was not helping, Davutoğlu said.

“Until now Russian presence and military activity has not been against [ISIL] but more against civilians, which is forcing people to leave Syria to come to Turkey, and also to have a visible power projection in [the] Eastern Mediterranean just to create a new de facto situation there.”

He added: “We want to see more visible NATO presence on our borders so that that will create a deterrence for those who may have an intention to test the capacity of NATO.”

Finally, on the NATO mission in the Aegean Sea, the Turkish PM said.

“This is a humanitarian operation, not a military operation, but we need the capacity of NATO in order to prevent new refugees, children dying in such an adventurous journey. Therefore Frontex on one side, NATO on the other side, Turkish and Greek capacity also. Together, we want to prevent these waves of refugees and also these tragic events in the Aegean Sea.”

“The Reuters leak [see below] is the Turkish proposal. Leaders said it’s a credible one but some said they needed to speak to their parliament, amid concerns the price is too high. It means that it’s likely we will not have a deal tonight and also that the dinner at 7 p.m. is in danger since it was meant to be the dinner where Europeans get back to the Turks with an answer to their requests.”

“[David Cameron] and his EU counterparts updated Prime Minister
Davutoğlu on their phone call on Syria with President Putin last week. The Prime Minister, his EU counterparts and Prime Minister Davutoğlu agreed on the importance of all sides respecting the current truce to provide space for productive peace talks and to allow humanitarian
access.”

— an extra €3 billion for aid for refugees between now and 2018— easier access to Schengen visas for Turkish citizens from June 2016, and— one-to-one resettlement, whereby the EU would admit one Syrian refugee for every Syrian taken back by Turkey from the Greek islands. (That’s after Turkey takes back all irregular migrants on Greek islands.)

“It needs to be clear that the accession path and the refugee issue need to be dealt with separately. Accession must continue to be a merit-based process. In this sense whether we look at the rule of law, the separation of powers, the freedom of the press, respect for Turkish institutions, the thorny issues must not be avoided.”

“On this line, I have particularly raised the strong concerns of the European Parliament regarding the alarming developments on media freedom in the country, such as the measures against the newspaper Zaman over the weekend.”

Diplomacy, as any envoy will attest, is part skill, part instinct. EU officials are beginning to worry Angela Merkel has neither. The German leader’s marathon dinner with Turkish PM Davutoğlu last night is beginning to look like a massive strategic blunder. Last week Donald Tusk traveled to Turkey to lay the groundwork for today’s summit. He left, confident an agreement was all but signed on shipping refugees back to Turkey. But Merkel’s meeting provided an opening for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to raise the stakes. Over dinner, Davutoğlu renewed Turkish demands on everything from the amount of aid the EU should offer for refugees, to visa liberalization for Turks in the EU. The Turkish wishlist has thrown today’s summit into disarray. If that weren’t problem enough, Merkel’s objection to declaring the Balkan route closed has thrown Tusk’s choreography further off track. Instead of a straightforward consultation, the summit has quickly turned into another nailbiter.

Osman Sert, the Turkish Prime Minister’s spokesman, confirmed that PM Ahmet Davutoğlu came to Brussels with a new proposal “to end this tragedy.” Asked if Turkey wants more money from the EU to keep the refugees in their country, Sert said: “I want to make it clear, that those €3 billion is not for Turkey. It’s for Syrians in Turkey.”

“Apart from this proposal, Turkey’s presence here at the summit is not directly linked only to the migration issue, but also Turkey accession process to the EU and regional issues. We are not here just to talk about the migrants. Turkey’s accession to the EU is an issue for us here.”

New demands from Turkey before it agrees to an EU deal have changed the choreography of today’s summit. Instead of wrapping up a meeting with Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoğlu in the early afternoon and holding a press conference, the 28 EU leaders will instead discuss the Turkish proposals in the afternoon. Then at dinner they will meet with the Turks again. So it could be another long evening…

Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said the Balkan route has become “a high speed highway to central Europe for illegal migrants” that needs to be shut down.

“By shutting down the (migrant corridor) to illegal migration, we will protect the Western Balkans from sliding into conflict,” Cerar said. “If tens of thousands of migrants again flood the Western Balkan region, many conflicts can erupt between countries in the region. And for us in Central Europe and in the EU (more migrants) would mean more borders among us, more conflicts and more damage to our economies.”

“Once the Balkan route is closed, those with legal basis for protection and asylum will be allowed to enter the European Union,” Cerar said, adding that Slovenia would then also start admitting the 567 refugees it agreed to take under the EU’s relocation plan last year.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said in February that he wanted to give copies of award-winning Italian documentary Fuocoammare [Fire at Sea] to his EU counterparts in a bid to change their attitudes towards migration.

The film shows life on the Italian island Lampedusa where many asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East enter Europe. Renzi said earlier that he hoped that EU leaders “will have time to watch it” and added “and that after [they] have seen it, it will be possible to discuss immigration in a different way.”

Renzi posted a picture on his Instagram account today which shows that he did bring the DVDs.

The Germans have surprised everyone with their objection to the line on the closure of the Western Balkan route, the diplomatic source said, pointing out that the language has been around for days and the Germans never complained before. The source said there was concern that any softening of the language now could be a “pull factor.”

A diplomat confirmed to me the Turkish request for more money was in the cards since day one, that’s why in the joint action plan the €3 billion is defined as an “initial” amount. Since for the Commission it would be difficult to put more on the table now, a deal could involve deciding a point at which Europe says it’s ready to consider the request.

As for Turkey’s wish to advance its progress towards joining the EU, the source said Cyprus only gets vocal at Coreper meetings when Turkey is the subject. However, given that today marks the end of the bailout program for Cyprus and also that reunification talks are back on track, Turkey’s request for new chapters to be opened will become more and more acceptable to Nicosia.

Last-minute moves by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised doubts Monday morning about how easily EU leaders would be able to reach a deal with Ankara on controlling the flow of refugees into Europe.

Davutoğlu wants more more money and guarantees that talks on Turkey’s EU membership will advance.

Meanwhile, Merkel will oppose any agreement to permanently close borders, putting her in conflict with a draft summit deal that had been put together by diplomats, including her own, over the weekend.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the EU’s relation with Turkey is “complex and complete, as Turkey is a complex country.”

Mogherini added: “we are working with Turkey as a candidate country [to become member of the EU]. And it will need to respond to the call from the EU to respect the values [of the EU] and keep highest standards such as as freedom of expression.”

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel stressed the need to save Schengen, in his remarks to reporters when arriving at the EU summit.

“There is only one possible solution [to save Schengen] and that is to completely close the Schengen area’s [external] borders to illegal, uncontrolled migration,” he said.

Belgium asked for its own suspension of the open borders agreement as France dismantled the refugee camp in Calais. (Reminder: http://politi.co/1LolnWD)

“Turkey needs to respect its commitments,” Michel said, including “fighting illegal migration [to Europe].” The Belgian PM refused to go into specifics when asked about whether Turkey would be able to fly over refugees to Europe for resettlement.

Michel also stressed the need for Greece to respect commitments to organize hotspots at its borders with Turkey. “Everyone needs to show solidarity to have the hotspots become operational … and Greece has to honor its promises,” he said. “This is what I will stress at the negotiation table.”

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said: “We will help [Turkey], but in exchange we will demand that we can return the people coming from there to the European Union.”

Migration “is the EU’s most important topic currently,” Rajoy added.

“We need to end this strange situation, how should I qualify it otherwise, that Austria is closing borders, also Macedonia, also Croatia. At the end this generates a very serious situation in Greece, causing humanitarian problems with hardly foreseeable consequences.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the U.K. will not be affected by the refugee influx into Europe, but added that “it is important to help the continent in securing its outside borders.”

“We are not in the Schengen border zone, so migrants that come to Europe are not able to come to the U.K.. That is important to understand. We have a rock solid opt out there is no prospect of Britain joining this.”

“It underlines the best of both worlds, I am in the discussions and able to make comments, but at the end of the day we maintain our borders and own way of doing things.”

“There must be commitments by Turkey against people smugglers,” the French president said.

“Europe has to commit to a program of resettlement, meaning Syrian refugees are welcomed in Europe,” he added.

The EU and Turkey must also agree on a common approach to patrol the Aegean Sea, Hollande said. The sea, which separates Turkey and Greece, is currently being patroled by a NATO intervention force. Hollande stressed that Turkey should take up responsibility to stop refugees from embarking on vessels and attempt to cross the Aegean.

One key issue is the statement of EU leaders to say the Western Balkans route is closed — a phrase in the draft that is now up for discussion because of German opposition. But France still supports the statement: “That is what is the case today — that route is closed,” Hollande said.

Asked about the overhaul of the newspaper Zaman by the Turkish government, Hollande said: “Cooperation with Turkey doesn’t mean we’re accepting everything of Turkey … Press needs to be free in Turkey, and everywhere in Turkey.”

Press freedom advocates and the international community criticized the Turkish government for installing a new leadership at the Zaman newspaper, one of the country’s media organizations most critical of the government’s work. Here’s a reminder: http://politi.co/1QV0Y7D

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that today’s meeting is “one of the most important summits.”

“I hope that we can take a step forward,” she added.

“A big part of the summit will be spent with Turkey. The EU-Turkey agenda plays a key role in the migration issue. Protecting our outside borders and restricting illegal migration is only doable in cooperation with Turkey,” Merkel said.

She also told reporters that the talks will be difficult. “I hope that we can reach a conclusion. The negotiations will be difficult. It will take a couple of hours.”

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu arrived in Brussels today ready to push for more concessions from the EU in exchange for a deal on stemming the flow of refugees into the EU.

Sources told POLITICO that at a meeting Sunday night with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over dinner at the Turkish embassy in Brussels, Davutoğlu laid out four key conditions to securing an agreement at the summit:

— Turkey wants more money on top of the previously agreed €3 billion refugee facility. The Commission doesn’t have much budget flexibility to offer Turkey more, meaning that any extra funding would have to come directly from EU member states.

— Turkey wants full visa liberalization for its citizens traveling to Europe. Ankara and Brussels are in the process of negotiating a visa liberalization roadmap But Turkey is now demanding full visa liberalization that would apply to all its citizens, rather than specific groups only — which the EU has pushed for.

— Turkey wants an acceleration of talks on Turkish membership of the EU. The accession process has been stuck for years, and Davutoğlu seems keen to seize the opportunity to force a breakthrough.

— Turkey wants to reopen talks on resettlement of refugees. Ankara is ready to agree to the readmission terms that have been drafted in past days (allowing the EU to send back migrants to Turkey) but also wants to force new conditions on resettlement (in which Turks would be able to send refugees to the EU). Resettlement had been taken off the table by EU negotiators earlier, but Davutoğlu wants it back.

German negotiators warned Turkey that its demands on visa liberalization and EU membership talks are a stretch — EU leaders won’t agree to them, according to the sources. But the funding issue as well as resettlement could perhaps be agreed on a bilateral basis, sources said. The Germans flagged Turkey’s new demands to other EU countries this morning.

The new demands have raised the stakes on a Turkey-EU deal just before the start of the summit. Along with a report that Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker oppose language in the draft summit statement saying the Western Balkans refugee route “is now closed,” they also are another sign that today’s summit is no done deal.

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced the United Kingdom is deploying Royal Navy ships to the Mediterranean to join NATO forces in patroling EU borders.

The U.K. joins Germany, Canada, Turkey and Greece in its efforts to deploy military personnel to stop refugees from reaching European shores. It is the first NATO intervention in the migrant crisis, which up until now has been mostly dealt with by EU institutions.

Cameron said in a statement: “We’ve got to break the business model of the criminal smugglers and stop the desperate flow of people crammed into makeshift vessels from embarking on a fruitless and perilous journey. That’s why this Nato mission is so important … That’s why the UK is providing vital military assets to work with our European partners and support this mission.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel added a question mark to today’s summit outcome, telling top EU officials she will not agree to draft language in a joint statement from leaders saying the Western Balkan migration route is “closed.” Diplomats over the weekend had worked to prepare the language in the hope of a smooth meeting with Turkey today, leading to a show of solidarity among EU leaders on how to address the refugee crisis.

POLITICO’s Florian Eder reports:

According to an EU official, Merkel made clear in a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker this morning that she will oppose one part of the crucial sentence in the draft summit statement, the one stating that “this route is now closed.” The source said she argued that statement is factually wrong, since there are refugees coming to Germany every day, if even only a few hundred.

The gist of Merkel’s position is that she can accept the first part of the draft sentence, saying that “Irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route are coming to an end,” but that she opposes the second part, which says “this route is now closed.”

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu says upon arrival that the second summit in three months in Brussels in which Turkey is involved shows “how indispensable the EU is for Turkey and Turkey for the EU.

“The only way to respond to this [challenges] is through solidarity. We have to see the whole picture, not just irregular migration. The whole future of Europe is on the table.”

He went on by saying that there is “more awareness of those challenges among the leaders now.”

“I had a fruitful meeting with Merkel and Rutte. I am sure these challenges will be solved.”

Davutoğlu ended by saying: “Turkey is ready to work with EU, Turkey is read to be a member of the EU. Turkish membership will be a turning point.”

With an increasingly authoritarian president cracking down on critics at home and pursuing Kurdish militants in southern Turkey and across the borders in Syria and Iraq, Turkey is a risky partner for Europe in its quest to stop illegal migration.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose country has been at the forefront of the EU migration crisis, said upon entry that the summit is about “our common problem” and EU leaders need to show solidarity.

“We need to find an EU solution. Between the two summits, there have been agreements that were not implemented by everyone. This cannot be the case. There are either agreements that we implement or no agreements at all. Everyone needs to implement common decisions.”

Tsipras said he was optimistic that the summit could achieve a meaningful agreement with Turkey. “I’m looking forward to have substantial results in this meeting between the EU and Turkey, in order to implement the action plan, in order to decrease substantially the flows and to smash the smugglers’ networks.” he said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was one of the first leaders to enter the building this morning, after he was in talks with Merkel and Davutoğlu until late in Brussels yesterday.

When asked if Turkey made any commitments, Rutte said “we had many talks”.

“The talks are meant to make steps. I am relatively optimistic about getting to further agreements with Turkey today.”

One of the points for discussion is that the EU wants Turkey to agree to take back non-Syrian refugees.

Q: “Will the Turkish Prime Minister take the economic refugees back?”

A: “We agree that they need to take such decisions step by step.”

Q: “Will this summit be a game changer?”

A: “I see perspective to take some further steps. I hope that we can bring some good news at the end of today. We still have an agreement from November. We are not talking about a new deal, but about implementing the deal.”

As the refugee crisis worsened last fall, Angela Merkel found a new best friend in Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.

These days, she treats him more like Hungarian outcast Viktor Orbán.

The story of how Faymann went from Merkel’s staunchest ally to her nemesis in just six months is more than just another episode in the long-running internecine feud between Europe’s fractious German-speaking tribes. Above all, the events offer a lesson in realpolitik à la Merkel.

POLITICO’s Matthew Karnitschnig reports on the German-Austrian tango to the tune of an ever-more serious migration crisis: http://politi.co/1StansJ

Meanwhile, POLITICO’s Ivo Oliveira and Cynthia Kroet take a look at how Faymann came to power in Austria.

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I only ask

Turkey in the EU ??? What next, Israel, Nigeria, Morocco ????

Posted on 3/7/16 | 11:08 AM CET

kristian

Turkey will again cheat on Europe. The Balkans countries and Austria had experiences with the Otomans (The Turks) and they Know how Turkey is an ambivalent and not trusty partner. The North Europe seems to be so naive and this costs the whole EU. The Turkey wants the green light to attack Kurds in Syria and uses the immigration flow as an excuse for everything. Europe is without real and rational leaders. At the end, it seems that Orban is the smartest guy of all.

Posted on 3/7/16 | 11:14 AM CET

Olaf

Now we are supposed to accept also “humanitarina ressetlement” of people directly from Tukey in the airplanes? This is the next plan of the European Commission and Germany. Aftery saying that Turkey has reduced the immigrant flow they will say they propose this plan as a more rational plan to handle the crisis. Who has given those politicians (especially Merkel) a right to play with Europen future like this? Has she asked people in referendum if they would accept 250,000 a year coming to Germany as “legal immigrants” instead of refugees? No. This will only backfire and it will be the end of Europe as we Know it. The leader who plays with its people and social cohesion is doomed.

Posted on 3/7/16 | 11:19 AM CET

Roy Jacobs

Refugees are normally placed in secure camps, provided for and protected whilst war rages, once peace prevails they return to rebuild their societies.
Only Europe is expected to give settlement, instant access to generous welfare provision, and ultimately citizenship.
Why?

Posted on 3/7/16 | 12:25 PM CET

LC

Syrians who fled the horrors of war first took shelter in Turkey, which is certainly not the Eldorado they dreamt of, but which is a safe country. At the moment these refugees then decide to leave Turkey for Germany or Sweden, crossing several other EU countries – which are even safer and more welcoming than Turkey – we no longer deal with refugees but with economic migrants who have no vocation whatsoever to remain in Europe.

Why must we wait so long to finally realize this simple evidence and send them back unilaterally to the Turkish shores ? Why should this always result in the European surrender to unacceptable blackmail by Erdogan? Weren’t these € 3bn offered to the Turkish dictator more useful to help Greece enforce ans secure its borders ?

Posted on 3/7/16 | 2:41 PM CET

trisul

It is completely ridiculous to blame the late-minute Turkish demands on a dinner with Merkel. They would have been coming no matter what, as refugees would be streaming into the EU, even if Merkel had said “Nein Danke” instead of “Wilkommen”.

This is just part of Putin’s campaign to vilify Merkel at every step of the way. Everything from Greece taking on too much debt to the war in Syria is being blamed on Merkel. Yeah, she is an important figure, but she is not the only force in Germany, the EU or the world.

When Putin sends us hordes of refugees, it is Merkel’s fault for “inviting them”.
When Greece is unable to implement any reforms, it is Merkel’s fault for not paying off all their debts.
When other Euro countries find it difficult to cut bureaucracy, it is Merkel’s fault for not offering to finance them.
etc.

If she is responsible for everything, let her run everything. Why do we need governments, why do we need concensus in the EU, if it is really Merkel deciding everything?

Posted on 3/7/16 | 4:07 PM CET

Kurtz

Time for someone with balls left to turn the table on the Turks. This shameless blackmailing is a disgrace.

Posted on 3/7/16 | 4:26 PM CET

Filippo

I read that yesterday night Rutte and Merkel met the turkish PM in preparation of the summit. Could please the dutch turning president of the counsil explain why he associated the german government in a negotiation he’s supposed to deal on behalf of all the member states?
Fortunately, looking at how the turks behave today they perfectly understood that last night meeting was all but something serious

Roy Jacobs

Merkel is an absolute disgrace, once more she unilaterally acts without discussion with her partners and European institutions.

Posted on 3/7/16 | 4:51 PM CET

Filippo

I read that ahead of the summit, a Juncker-Tusk-Rutte-Merkel meeting has been held. Could the first three, representative of EU institutions, please explain what was at stake in this meeting? Was it about some specific matter concerning Gernany or about the Turkey-refugees matter? And in the latter case could they please explain why the german government was present?

Posted on 3/7/16 | 5:31 PM CET

Marcel

Here is the deal.

No visa free access for Turks.
No Turkey in EU, ever.
Refugee quota set at zero.
No money for Turkey.
No decisions forced on countries by Führerin Merkel.

Posted on 3/7/16 | 7:05 PM CET

Roy Jacobs

Danegeld, didnt work very well the last time, Danegeld plus visa rights are not likely to be any more succesful.
Turkey needs to understand there is a cost, not a reward for its behaviour. Trade and diplomatic sanctions, NATO membership under question.
In the meantime large refugee camps in Greece, funded by the EU, with the refugees held in place, not wandering around, until peace is in place, then returned, no settlement, no welfare, no citizenship rights.
Economic migrants returned, immediately, any nation causing difficulties accepting their returnees subject to trade and aid sanctions, anyone without papers held in camps without right to asylum or refugee status.
Time to get real Europe.

Posted on 3/7/16 | 7:06 PM CET

Tycho Brahe

This is the worst EU political prostitution. And what about direct financial help for Syria , Iraq and others without demokracy export. Aristoteles- democracy is the worst state system. FDJ member Frau Merkel ( communist youth organisation in DDR ) is like out of order

Posted on 3/7/16 | 11:00 PM CET

Strindberg

Has any of these “human” EU-leaders asked or dared to ask “human” Turkey to sign the Geneva convention during yesterday’s meetings?

It could have been a good first, clearing step instead of turning the EU into a longtime hostage at the Ottomans.